In a sign of unity, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and Basketball Australia released a joint statement condemning the terrible actions of their respective national teams during the Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers last Monday.
SBP president Al Panlilio and BA president Ned Coten said the two governing bodies “deeply regret the events that took place during the game, the actions displayed have no place on any basketball court.”
“We wish to apologize to the entire basketball community worldwide—and in particular to our fantastic fans in the Philippines and Australia—for the behavior displayed by both teams and for bringing the game of basketball into disrepute.”
Gilas Pilipinas and the Boomers were playing their second group stage match when uncontrolled physical play boiled over into a free-for-all melee.
It all started when Roger Pogoy and Chris Goulding got into each other’s skins with the former eventually pushing the latter to the ground.
Daniel Kickert then threw a forearm to Pogoy’s jaw, resulting in the ugly fight that saw nine players from the Philippines getting ejected and four from Australia tossed.
Australia’s Kickert, Goulding, Thon Maker, and Nathan Sobey were ejected while the Philippines lost Andray Blatche, Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, Jayson Castro, Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, and Carl Bryan Cruz.
Only June Mar Fajardo, Baser Amer, and Gabe Norwood were left to play for the Philippines in a game that ended at the 1:57 mark of the third and Australia winning by default, 89-53.
“We fully accept our responsibility and are collaborating in the ongoing proceedings to investigate the incidents,” said the two officials. “We will do everything in our power to prevent this from happening again.”
“Basketball has a unique power to unite and we look forward to continuing bringing people together in the true spirit of friendship and sportsmanship in future games.”